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February 4, 2014

FEATURED BLOG

"AL HB31: Where Saving a Woman's Life Becomes a Question of Conscience," Caperton, Feministe: The Alabama Senate is expected to take up a state House-approved bill (HB 31), "which would allow the entire hospital staff, including but not limited to physicians, nurses, pharmacists, counselors, and social workers, to refuse to provide medical care in situations that would 'violate their conscience,'" Caperton writes. Under the bill, which will apply to "abortion, human cloning, human embryonic stem cell research, and sterilization" services, "every provider in the ER can refuse to treat [a woman experiencing a miscarriage] if treatment would result in the termination of the pregnancy" and her life is not in "immediate danger," Caperton adds (Caperton, Feministe, 1/31).

FEATURED BLOG

"Repro Wrap: So Many TRAPs, so few Clinics and Other News," Robin Marty, Care2: "This week has been another week of massive abortion restrictions across the country via TRAP (Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers) regulations, but, unlike past attacks that we've seen in the states, some new, ingenious tactics are being unveiled," writes Marty. She cites a rescinded regulation in Louisiana that would have "in essence create[d] a 30-day wait for an abortion" and unsuccessful efforts in Indiana to "remove the grandfather clause from last year's bill to require all abortion clinics to remodel as ASC (Ambulatory Surgical Centers), not just clinics built after 1992." Robin also writes about medication abortion restrictions in Arizona, Missouri's efforts to impose a 72-hour waiting period, an ultrasound bill in Kentucky and an effort in Kansas to outlaw surrogacy. "But, to end on a happy note, Colorado's legislature has once again rejected a 'personhood'-esque bill, which means that no legislation or ballot initiative that would totally ban all abortions has ever made it into law, despite the now near dozen times it has been proposed in the state," Marty writes (Marty, Care2, 1/31).

Video Round Up

N.C. Gov. To Break Campaign Promise on Abortion Bills

AP/ABC News 11's Ed Crump discusses how North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) will break his campaign pledge to not sign any abortion restrictions if he signs a 72-hour mandatory delay bill into law. Watch the video

Datapoints

See where states rank on reproductive rights across the U.S. Plus, find out how states are imposing more restrictions on and limiting women's access to abortion. Read more

At A Glance

"Not since before Roe v. Wade has a law or court decision had the potential to devastate access to reproductive health care on such a sweeping scale."

— Nancy Northup, president and CEO of the Center for Reproductive Rights, on a ruling from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that upheld major portions of a Texas antiabortion-rights law. Read more